Radios, TVs and newspapers defend proposals against fake news – 03/17/2023 – Politics

The AIR (International Broadcasting Association) approved a document that asks the countries of the three Americas to implement government actions and policies against the spread of disinformation and hate speech on the internet, as well as anti-competitive practices in the sector.

Called the Letter from Brasilia, the text contains suggestions for a bill currently under discussion in the Brazilian National Congress that makes the dissemination of fake news a crime. The document will be delivered to representatives of the Lula government, the Legislative and the Judiciary.

The segment also advocates that professional media be remunerated by social networks for the use of the content produced by them, in addition to equal treatment in the legislation.

The Brasilia Charter was approved on Wednesday (15th) at a seminar that brought together representatives of the executive boards of AIR, Abert (Brazilian Association of Radio and TV Broadcasters) and ANJ (National Association of Newspapers), in addition to the Minister of Secretary of Social Communication, Paulo Pimenta (PT).

Deputy Orlando Silva (PC do B/SP), rapporteur for the project that proposes rules against the dissemination of fake news, and professors Rose Marie Santini and Márcio Borges, from the Internet and Social Media Studies Laboratory at the Federal University of São Paulo, also participated. Rio de Janeiro.

Abert’s president, Flávio Lara Resende, said that big techs should be held responsible for the misinformation that circulates on their platforms, as well as advertising and boosted content.

He pointed out that technology companies and digital platforms are “welcome to the Brazilian communication environment”, but it is necessary that they act according to the same rules imposed on the communication vehicles.

“Brazil cannot remain inert. Innovation requires equal treatment, fair and loyal, among all economic agents that compete in the media,” he said.

President of AIR, an entity that represents 17,000 private radio and TV broadcasters, Eugênio Sosa Mendoza defended the need for countries in the Americas to debate a way of regulating large digital companies and the symmetry of rules in the media market.

“Brazil is more than a country, it is a continent due to its political and economic scope, and it is necessary to focus on this discussion”, he said.

For Marcelo Rech, from the ANJ, Brazil has “the opportunity to be the great protagonist” in this debate. He said that the solution to the problem goes through a global pact, self-regulated, against disinformation, led by the United Nations along the lines of confronting global warming.

Rech stated that the central point of this great agreement is the appreciation and recognition of journalism through the remuneration of journalistic activities by large technology companies.

Minister Paulo Pimenta said that the Lula government (PT) is considering submitting to Congress a proposal to regulate the internet, which includes punishments for big techs, in case of violations of the Democratic State Law and the rights of children and adolescents.

“It is not possible that we are governed by a set of laws and that there is no responsibility for the content disclosed”, stated the PT candidate.

Contrary to the Executive’s discussions, the president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Minister Alexandre de Moraes, defends a “lean” internet regulation.

Moraes led the court in the last elections, through resolutions approved by the plenary of the court and investigations, to combat misinformation in the election.

While the government is drawing up broad legislation, along the lines of the Digital Services Law, in force in the European Union since February, Moraes told interlocutors that a very complex regulation would not be effective and would have difficulty being approved by Congress.

It is necessary to combine, according to him, the self-regulation of the platforms with a synthetic standardization. The government would establish some basic standards that would guide their actions.

The platforms are partners with the TSE’s Program to Combat Disinformation, created in 2019. In August 2021, the program became a permanent action of the court, with the escalation of attacks on the Electoral Justice and its members. Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and close aides carried out part of these attacks.